The Challenges of Only Using a Discharge Planner to Decide Senior Living

Author: Stacy's Helping Hand |

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Since Discharge Planners are not in the care facilities, they’ve relied on us, on more than one occasion when a senior needs a nursing home or memory care facility. With our experience with local facilities, we know that a specific, small assisted living facility can offer the high level of care your senior needs, would be a better fit, and is much less expensive.

Sifting through all of the details is tough. Below is a list of our top benefits and concerns of solely working with a Case Manager and/or Discharge Planner. For complete details, read our story. Are Denver Discharge Planners A Good Resource for Assisted Living Facilities?

Benefits of Working with a Discharge Planner:

  • Free Resource – they don’t receive broker commissions from facilities.
  • Experience to assess the physical care needs of your loved one.
  • Can be a good resource for senior care facilities, depending upon their experience and caseload.
  • Has personal experience with your loved one.
  • Your contact information isn’t sold to 3rd parties like with online referral services.

Challenges You Might Face:

  • They’re stretched for time which might force a rushed decision.
  • You may only receive a list of select facilities and/or receive the Seniors Blue Book as a resource.
  • They’re knowledge about facilities/communities may not be very detailed and most often they have not toured them.
  • Case Managers do not have time to do an extensive follow up with families to know if the care facility was a good fit.

Dangers using only Free Resources:

  • You won’t learn a facility’s reputation and whether the facility will really provide the quality and level of care the facility has assured you they are capable of providing.
  • You still have to visit numerous facilities to see if they would be a good option and you may not ask the right questions.
  • Starting rates many times do not include care so you are surprised when it is not in your price range.
  • You could be touring with high-pressured facility sales/marketing people who have quotas to fill.

3 Questions to ask if your Case Manager provides you with a list of specific care facilities:

  • How do know of the facility?
  • Have you toured the facility?
  • Has a family or trusted 3rd party resource recommended the facility? If so, how many?

We work with many discharge planners in the Denver area. And in the future, we hope that more Case Managers will look to 3rd party professionals like us who are in the facilities to be a trusted resource. As the first point of contact, a discharge planner can provide families a list of vetted referral services and/or a company like ours which also acts like an Interim Case Manager specializing in care facilities. If you still have questions, call us at 720-248-7758 for a free initial phone consultation. We’re here to help you make a good decision about Assisted Living in Denver CO.



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